Reconstruction 1865 - 1877

After the Civil War, enormous problems faced the nation, especially the South. Americans had to bring the North and South together again.

The government developed a plan for states to return to the Union and created an organization to help people freed from slavery. This process was known as .

• Abraham Lincoln – president who wanted to bind up the wounds of the Civil War as quickly as possible

• amnesty – a group pardon

• freedman – a man or woman who was legally freed from slavery after the Civil War

• John Wilkes Booth – a Confederate sympathizer who shot President Lincoln

Terms and People

President Lincoln hoped heal the nation and bring North and South together again.

In his second inaugural address he said, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Because the costs of the war were so great, hard feelings still remained.

In 1865, the South faced the challenge of building a new society that was not based on slavery. The process the federal government used to readmit the Confederate states to the Union is known as Reconstruction.

After the Civil War, Congress was controlled by a powerful group of congressman called the Radical Republicans. This group favored using federal power to create a “new order” in the South and promote full citizenship for freed African Americans. Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, the leader of the Radical Republicans, called for “the whole fabric of southern society to be changed.”

Reconstruction Begins

President Abraham Lincoln and Congress proposed different plans for Reconstruction.

President Lincoln’s

plan

Ten Percent

Plan

When 10% of a state’s voters swore an oath of loyalty, they could organize a new state government.

Congress’s plan

Wade-Davis Bill

When 50% of a state’s voters swore loyalty, they could organize a new state government.

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan made it easy for southern states to rejoin the Union.

That state could form a new state government.

That government declared an end to slavery.

10% of a state’s voters swore loyalty to the U.S.

The state could take part in national government again.

Former Confederates would receive .

If… Then…

Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan

The Wade-Davis Bill was much stricter.

That state could rejoin the Union.

People in that state had voluntarily fought for the Confederacy.

50% of a state’s voters swore loyalty to the U.S.

They would not have voting rights.

Lincoln refused to sign the bill, so it was never passed.

If… Then…

The Wade-Davis Bill

In 1865, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau.

The government also had to deal with the needs of .

The Bureau’s first duty was to provide emergency relief to people displaced by the war.

• Set up by Congress to help newly freed slaves - 1865-1872

• Provided millions of meals for poor blacks & whites in South

• Set up more than 100 hospitals • Distribution of abandoned land • Resettled over 30,000 people

displaced by the war • Founded more than 4,300

schools.

The Freedmen’s Bureau Established to assist former slaves, this federal agency set up schools and hospitals for African Americans and distributed clothes, food, and fuel throughout the South.

President Lincoln did not live to put his plans into practice. Lincoln was shot by

, a Confederate sympathizer, while attending a play.

Booth was captured and killed, but Americans remained stunned by Lincoln’s death.

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

• Andrew Johnson – Vice President who became President when Lincoln was assassinated

• scalawag – southern whites who had opposed secession

• carpetbagger – a northern white who went south to start a business or pursue political office

•impeachment – bringing of formal charges against a public official

•black codes – new laws used by southern states to control African Americans

Terms and People

One of the great legacies of the war was the freeing of millions of enslaved people. The Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves in the Confederacy, but many African Americans in the border states were still enslaved.

In January of 1865, President Lincoln urged Congress to end the institution of slavery. By year’s end Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment and 27 states, including eight in the South, ratified it. Slavery was banned in the United States.

Like Lincoln, President Johnson proposed a less demanding plan for Reconstruction.

• He gave amnesty to most former Confederates.

• He allowed southern states to organize new governments and elect Congressmen.

Congress rejected Johnson’s lenient approach and began to debate a new plan.

Anger over these developments led

Radical Republicans in

Congress to adopt a hard

line.

To sidestep the abolishment of slavery, some Southerners

supported black codes, a system of near-slavery.

Radical Reconstruction

The struggle over Reconstruction led to direct clashes between the President and Congress.

Black Codes As Southern states set up new governments they passed laws, known as black codes, which limited the freedom of former slaves. African Americans were forbidden to meet in unsupervised groups or carry guns. Mississippi required African Americans to have written proof of employment or they could be put to work on a plantation.

Radical Republicans in Congress demanded full and equal citizenship for African Americans and refused to seat representatives from the South. Republican Congressmen wanted to destroy the South’s old ruling class by remaking Southern politics and society.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed by Congress on 9th April 1866 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition. As citizens they could make and enforce contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and inherit, purchase, lease, sell, and hold property. Persons who denied these rights to former slaves were guilty of a misdemeanor and faced fines and/or imprisonment.

The Civil Rights Act

The 14th Amendment.

The 14th amendment was not fully enforced until the 1970s.

Next, Congress passed the 14th Amendment.

All people born or naturalized in the United States are citizens.

States must allow all males over 21 to vote.

The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the South into five military districts and stated that in order for Southern states to reenter the Union and send representatives to Congress they must:

1. Approve new state constitutions.

2. Ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.

3. Allow African Americans to vote.

During Reconstruction, more than 600 African Americans served in Southern state legislatures and 14 were elected to Congress. Two African Americans served as U.S. Senators.

The Reconstruction Acts of 1867

President Andrew Johnson

• majority of white men must swear oath of loyalty

• states must ratify 13th Amendment

• former Confederate officials may vote and hold office

Radical Republicans

• state governments must disband

• states must write new constitutions

• states must ratify 13th and 14th Amendments

• must allow African American men to vote

Which side pushed for stricter controls of the new states?

The Radicals tried to remove President Johnson from office by . Republicans claimed he violated the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson received just enough votes to stay in office.

Then, General Ulysses S. Grant won the 1868 presidential election.

Radical Republican power peaked in 1868.

Grant was a moderate, so the Radicals began to lose power.

Impeachment – the process of accusing a public official of wrongdoing. The Constitution describes impeachable offences as “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

• House of Representatives brings formal charges against govt. official (President) • Treason, Bribery, or High Crimes & misdemeanors • Senate hears evidence against official (President) • Senate determine guilt or innocence • Senate votes on removal from office • Two Presidents have been impeached

–Andrew Johnson –William Jefferson Clinton

• Both were acquitted (found innocent) & were not removed from office.

The Impeachment Process

Johnson Is Impeached

Events that led to President Johnson’s Impeachment

Fired Secretary Stanton

Johnson is impeached

Vetoed Civil Rights

Act

Did not support the Fourteenth

Amendment

Chose pro-Confederate military

commanders

Journal �

If you were a member of Congress during Reconstruction, would you have voted in favor or against the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson?

The Ku Klux Klan

Klan Attack, Unknown Artist.

President Grant

In 1868, the Republican Party gained control of the Executive Branch of government when Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency. Despite attacks by the Ku Klux Klan, about 500,000 African Americans in the South voted giving Grant a majority.

Republicans in Congress and President Grant passed the Fifteenth Amendment and a tough anti-Klan law. Attacks against African Americans declined and Grant won a second term in 1872.

In 1869, Congress approved the .

Secret societies such as the Ku Klux Klan used terror and violence to keep African Americans from voting.

States had to allow African Americans to vote.

The Ku Klux Klan

• poll tax – a personal tax to be paid before voting

• literacy test – a test to see if a person can read and write

• grandfather clause – a provision that allowed a voter to avoid a literacy test if his father or grandfather had been eligible to vote on January 1, 1867

Terms and People

• Homer Plessy – an African American man arrested for sitting in a coach marked “for whites only”

• sharecropper – a laborer who works the land for the farmer who owns it in exchange for a share of the value of the crop

• segregation – enforced separation of races

Scandals Weaken the Republicans

President Grant put army friends and his wife’s relatives in government positions. Many of these appointees were unqualified and some took bribes. This political corruption caused a split in the Republican Party and they became less willing to impose tough policies on the South.

In 1873, several powerful Eastern banks ran out of money after making bad loans. A financial panic swept the country and the stock market collapsed. The Panic of 1873 caused many banks to close and led to an economic depression and high unemployment. This depression lasted for nearly five years.

Reconstruction Ends In 1876, two Supreme Court decisions began to undo some of the changes in the South. In U.S. v. Cruikshank the Court ruled that only states had the power to punish individuals who violated the civil rights of African Americans. The Court also stated that the Fifteenth Amendment did not give everyone the right to vote and that states could prevent people from voting in U.S. v. Reese.

The final blow to Reconstruction came with the presidential election of 1876. The race was very close and votes in some states were disputed. A special commission came up with the Compromise of 1877. The compromise forced the government to remove federal troops from the South and Southern Reconstruction governments soon collapsed.

Reconstruction Ends

In return, Hayes agreed to end Reconstruction.

The commission decided to give Hayes, the Republican, all 20 disputed electoral votes.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Congress appointed a 15-person commission, mostly Republicans, to settle the election results.

With Reconstruction over, African Americans began to lose their rights in the South.

Southern whites passed laws to keep African Americans from voting.

One law required voters to pay a poll tax. This kept many poor freedmen from voting.

Another law required voters to pass a literacy test. It included a grandfather clause that allowed illiterate whites to vote.

Southern states also created laws requiring segregation, known as Jim Crow laws.

White Black

Hospitals Cemeteries Playgrounds Restaurants

Schools Streetcars

Hospitals Cemeteries Playgrounds Restaurants

Schools Streetcars

In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld segregation laws.

This rule remained in effect until the 1950s.

Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a coach marked “for whites only.”

The court ruled that a law could

require “separate but equal”

facilities for blacks and whites.

African Americans Lose Rights

40 Acres and a Mule As the Civil War ended, General Sherman suggested that abandoned land in coastal South Carolina be split into 40-acre parcels and given to freedmen.

Some Republican leaders pushed for land reform arguing that civil rights meant little without economic independence. Other Congressmen believed that new civil and voting rights were enough to give African Americans a better life. Congress did not pass the land-reform plan.

Many poor African Americans were forced to become sharecroppers, a laborer who works the land for the farmer who owns it in exchange for a share of the value of the crop.

Cycle of Poverty

Cycle of Poverty

The South’s economy began to gradually recover.

Southern leaders spoke of a “New

South” that would no longer depend only on

cotton.

The cotton, tobacco, and

textile industries thrived.

Factories developed

iron, timber, and oil.

Industrial Growth

Journal �

Which Reconstruction-era amendments do you believe brought about the greatest change in American society? In light of what occurred after Reconstruction, what other amendments do you believe should have been passed?